Playing mms streams in SeaMonkey

October 22, 2010 — BarryK

There has been a lot of confusion over this. With SM 1.x we could make and entry by typing "about:config" in the URL bar and create some entries that got stored in /root/.mozilla/.../prefs.js. However, this mechanism does not work with SM 2.x (and Firefox), and I really have to blame the Mozilla developers for not explaining this to us users... anyway, I have accidentally stumbled upon the solution...

No, you do not need to install libmms. That library may be a dependency of some media players, but mplayer in Wary already has mms playing support.

Putting entries into about:config does not seem to work anymore. Creating new entries in prefs.js, they just get ignored -- which is something the Mozilla developers need to attend to.

Running a pristine Wary 0.9, create a file /root/.mozilla/seamonkey/3o1ptd5r.default/mimeTypes.rdf, with this in it:

<?xml version="1.0"?>

<RDF:RDF xmlns:NC="http://home.netscape.com/NC-rdf#"

         xmlns:RDF="http://www.w3.org/1999/02/22-rdf-syntax-ns#">

  <RDF:Description RDF:about="urn:scheme:handler:mms"

                   NC:alwaysAsk="false">

    <NC:externalApplication RDF:resource="urn:scheme:externalApplication:mms"/>

  </RDF:Description>

  <RDF:Description RDF:about="urn:mimetype:application/x-pet"

                   NC:value="application/x-pet"

                   NC:editable="true"

                   NC:fileExtensions="pet"

                   NC:description="">

    <NC:handlerProp RDF:resource="urn:mimetype:handler:application/x-pet"/>

  </RDF:Description>

  <RDF:Description RDF:about="urn:mimetype:application/x-bzip2"

                   NC:value="application/x-bzip2"

                   NC:editable="true"

                   NC:fileExtensions="bz2"

                   NC:description="">

    <NC:handlerProp RDF:resource="urn:mimetype:handler:application/x-bzip2"/>

  </RDF:Description>

  <RDF:Description RDF:about="urn:mimetype:handler:application/x-gzip"

                   NC:alwaysAsk="true"

                   NC:saveToDisk="true">

    <NC:externalApplication RDF:resource="urn:mimetype:externalApplication:application/x-gzip"/>

  </RDF:Description>

  <RDF:Seq RDF:about="urn:mimetypes:root">

    <RDF:li RDF:resource="urn:mimetype:application/x-bzip2"/>

    <RDF:li RDF:resource="urn:mimetype:application/x-pet"/>

    <RDF:li RDF:resource="urn:mimetype:application/x-gzip"/>

  </RDF:Seq>

  <RDF:Description RDF:about="urn:root"

                   NC:en-US_defaultHandlersVersion="-1" />

  <RDF:Description RDF:about="urn:schemes">

    <NC:Protocol-Schemes RDF:resource="urn:schemes:root"/>

  </RDF:Description>

  <RDF:Description RDF:about="urn:mimetype:handler:application/x-bzip2"

                   NC:alwaysAsk="true"

                   NC:saveToDisk="true">

    <NC:externalApplication RDF:resource="urn:mimetype:externalApplication:application/x-bzip2"/>

  </RDF:Description>

  <RDF:Description RDF:about="urn:mimetype:application/x-gzip"

                   NC:value="application/x-gzip"

                   NC:editable="true"

                   NC:fileExtensions="gz"

                   NC:description="">

    <NC:handlerProp RDF:resource="urn:mimetype:handler:application/x-gzip"/>

  </RDF:Description>

  <RDF:Seq RDF:about="urn:schemes:root">

    <RDF:li RDF:resource="urn:scheme:mms"/>

  </RDF:Seq>

  <RDF:Description RDF:about="urn:scheme:externalApplication:mms"

                   NC:prettyName="defaultmediaplayer"

                   NC:path="/usr/local/bin/defaultmediaplayer" />

  <RDF:Description RDF:about="urn:mimetype:handler:application/x-pet"

                   NC:alwaysAsk="true"

                   NC:saveToDisk="true">

    <NC:externalApplication RDF:resource="urn:mimetype:externalApplication:application/x-pet"/>

  </RDF:Description>

  <RDF:Description RDF:about="urn:scheme:mms"

                   NC:value="mms">

    <NC:handlerProp RDF:resource="urn:scheme:handler:mms"/>

  </RDF:Description>

  <RDF:Description RDF:about="urn:mimetypes">

    <NC:MIME-types RDF:resource="urn:mimetypes:root"/>

  </RDF:Description>

</RDF:RDF>

Then boot SM and go to:
http://watch.squidtv.net/
...I clicked the Chinese CCTV News "Watch" link.

I set the handler as "/usr/local/bin/defaultmediaplayer" so it will work for any media player, not just mplayer.

Comments

Mozilla woes

Re SM
Username: BarryK
"sage, The same applies to Firefox. When SM upgraded to 2.x, it synced with Firefox 3.6 and inherited the problem. Anyway, problem solved, and now that we know how to do it, we can add more external handlers as required. I have fixed the SM PET for the next Wary, and I also found that 'seamonkey_addon_sqlite_manager' and 'seamonkey_addon_zombie_keys' PETs were broken, fixed those also.

mms streams
Username: rjbrewer
"It's either the "cats pyjamas" or the "bees knees". Workin great Barry! Bees tvs; http://beelinetv.com/

More Mozzie
Username: Sage
"Neither FF or tx's version sprang to mind! Give you a clue: my choices both begin with vowels...

throbber
Username: DaveS
"Yet some stuff in about:config still works, for example, applying another url to the throbber.... While on Seamonkey, I have noticed that Seamonkey in Wary (35 kernel) now sometimes hangs when trying to submit text to various web forums. This is new and is not happening in other Puppy versions.

Another MMS Fix
Username: perthie
"This worked for me in about:config New > Boolean > Name "network.protocol-handler.expose.mms" Set the value to "false" Now when you click on an mms link, you can select the application. Use "/usr/local/bin/defaultmediaplayer".

The best commercial ATI driver released today (Catalyst 10.10)
Username: panzerpuppy
"The latest commercial ATI driver (Catalyst 10.10) was released today. Possibly the best driver *ever* from AMD. It supports all the latest ATI/AMD cards, including the recently launched HD 6000 series. Now all we need is a working .PET package for Wary/Quirky.

libmms not needed
Username: upnorth
"Sorry about my confusion over libmms, since it's not needed with either firefox or seamonkey or gmplayer or smplayer. Probably not needed with other mediaplayers either...too many pups, not enough sleep........ What perthie has above is what worked for me to trigger the gui to add an external app for an mms link. Once the application is selected, it can then later be changed through the edit>preferences>helper applications This gets set in the mimeTypes.rdf as Barry has outlined above. The config "network.protocol-handler.expose.mms" "false" works only to trigger the gui once. It is temporary and dissappears from the config after app is selected. No other config changes are needed for the contemporary seamonkey or firefox. There was a problem back in April for a while, when seamonkey v2.04 and firefox wouldn't work with this, but that problem no longer exists.

Re mms and SM
Username: BarryK
"Upnorth, thanks for the clarification. What does not work are the old instructions, such as those posted at the Gnome-mplayer site, that only works with SM 1.x: http://sites.google.com/site/kdekorte2/gnomemplayer ...well, that didn't work last time I tried it in SM 2.x.

Re ATI driver
Username: BarryK
"panzerpuppy, I will probably release the next Wary with the 2.6.34.6 kernel, and if it looks good will stay with it for the final Wary. So, someone with ATI video hardware will be invited to compile the ATI driver and create a PET package, and I will add it to the official repo, and also integrate it into the Video Upgrade Wizard.

Tags: wary